Lover's Tears
by Supernatural-Lover
Summary: Angelus comes to Buffy while she's sleeping...leading up to a big fight sequence and an agonizing decision...
1. Angelus goes to Buffy

Angelus looked at the slayer as she slept. He admired her curved cheekbones, shapely eyebrows, and golden hair. He longed to see her eyes open and stare at him in terror, but he knew that he must wait a few more minutes. As he had told Spike, to kill this slayer, you had to love her. And Angelus did love her, in his own twisted way. She was what had gotten rid of his pesky soul, and he had to thank her for it. He just wasn't sure how. What he really wanted to do was drain her body of every delicious drop of blood, and his demonic features flashed across his face. With great effort, he controlled himself, and his human face reappeared. Angelus decided that it was time to wake Buffy. Maybe he would change her. It might be handy to have a slayer as an ally, especially one so good in bed. No slayer had been changed for thousands of years. Angelus reached out and cupped Buffy's cheek in his hand. Then he leaned over and kissed her roughly. Buffy awoke with a start, and he replaced his lips with his hand, forcing her to stay silent. "I will not hurt you tonight slayer." He said softly. He ran his hand down her face. Buffy shivered with fear. Angelus leaned over and kissed her again. She stayed very still, and he nipped her lip with his teeth. He slid his fingers around her neck, pulling her hair away. He felt her stiffen under him, and he smiled. He loved the way her fear smelled. Angelus dipped his head and nuzzled the slayer's neck. He saw her close her eyes, and a tear slipped down her cheek. As the night went on, Angelus made her want him. He forced her body to arch under his fingers, he made her moan with sadness. He crushed her to him and pushed her away. He forced her eyes to open as he made her his, and he knew that she wanted him, the murderer of her love. And because of this, Angelus smiled and made her scream in pleasure. 


	2. The day after

Angelus was disgusted. What could have come over him? He didn't care a whit about the slayer, in fact, he'd like to see her dead. Why then, had he taken her last night? He didn't understand himself. He would like to think it was because he wanted to hurt her.and he did, but there was something else there, something he couldn't place.  
  
He stepped into the shower and scrubbed all the scents of love off of himself. Well, it wasn't really love. Lust would be more accurate, he thought with a grin. As he stepped out of the shower with a towel around his waste, and walked to the closet to get some clothes, he heard a noise.  
  
Turning suddenly, he saw the slayer standing next to the large table in the center of the warehouse. Her eyes trembled and danced in her face, and he knew that she was afraid.  
"Hello lover." He drawled. "Couldn't stay away?" She strained to control herself, and he saw her muscles as tense as he'd ever seen them.  
"I came to kill you Angelus," she said hardly. "You took away the one sweet night angel could give me, and I will send you to hell for it." 


	3. the fight begins

Buffy stepped closer and looked darkly at the demon that stole her boyfriend's body. He looked the same, except for the coldness in his eyes. She saw the way he leered at her, and closed her eyes to hide sudden tears.  
  
Angelus saw her close her eyes and took his opportunity. He rushed her, catching her around the waste and knocking her to the floor. Her head snapped against the concrete of the warehouse floor, and he rolled to sit on-top of her. Before he could get a good hold on her, she slammed her fist into his face and shoved him to the side. Sliding away from him, she spun her heel around to catch him in the chin. Jumping up, she ran to get behind him, but he turned to face her, his face feral. Breathing hard, they began to circle one another. 


	4. the knife

Angelus took in his opponent's stance and knew that she would fight to the death this time. Wearing Angel's face would not save him if she gained the upper-hand. Thinking that it might by him time anyway, he controlled his vampire senses and returned to his human face. He could smell her fear, the same as he could the night before, but there was something new mixed in. He searched his mind for a name for it. And suddenly, it came to him. Determination. She was so livid and disgusted that hardly anything would slow her down. But then, Angelus smiled. Death would slow her down. He broke the circle pattern and ran at her with the intent of faking her out, but she guessed his plan and blocked him. Going for the more open approach, he darted to the fireplace on the far wall, knowing that ceremonial knives were stacked there in glass cases. Buffy saw where he was going and tried to head him off, but he knocked her sideways with a backhand and shattered all of the glass cases. Picking up the longest knife he could see, he stood and grinned at the slayer.  
  
Buffy saw the knife glint in his hand and her blood turned cold. All she had was a stake. Angelus shifted the knife in his hand, and she darted forward to try and knock it from him. In an instant, she realized that she had lost her balance, and now had a knife protruding from her side. She looked at Angelus with wide eyes, disbelieving that she had lost.  
  
Angelus saw his knife slide into the slayer and looked at the blood that poured out of her with mixed feelings. Of course, he wouldn't be able to torture her anymore, or smell her fear or make her eyes widen in terror, but death was sweeter than all of those. He started toward her, but jumped back, hissing, as the sun rose and covered the slayer in sunlight. 


	5. deadly confusion

Buffy winced in pain at every breath. She knew that as soon as the sun went down, Angelus would not be held back anymore. He would kill her. She only hoped that she would heal before he made an attempt. The knife was still sticking out of her side, and Buffy knew that she should try to get it out soon. Every movement racked her body with pain, and if she could get the knife out, there was a possibility that she would heal faster. Gingerly, she put her hand around the knife handle. She yanked upward and felt it slide out of her reluctantly, catching on pieces of skin. She screamed in agony, and then everything went black.  
  
Angelus was furious. He had almost had the slayer, and then the damned sun had to come up! And it was just her luck that she had landed in front of the one window he hadn't closed last night. One thing was in his favor. The fact that he still wore Angel's appearance. And now that the slayer was weak and in pain, he just might be able to make use of that.  
  
Buffy awoke to find Angelus staring at her, tears streaking down his face. "Buffy, buffy, what have I done?" he said to himself softly. "I've killed her, oh god, I've killed her.no god, please no."  
Buffy saw everything slightly blurry, and she wondered if she had been hearing things too. He sounded like, like Angel. Not Angelus, but Angel. Wincing, she turned to face him, scraping her side along the floor.  
"Buffy! Oh god, are you ok, did I do this to you? Please say something to me, god I thought you were dead, I was going to go stand outside in the sun to make it end, say something! Buffy." Angel stopped talking, looked at her breathlessly, and moved toward her, stopping just outside the sun's reach.  
"Stop." Buffy hissed through clenched teeth. " I don't know what the hell is going on, but just stop."  
Angel looked at her with obvious pain and disbelief in his eyes.  
"I did do this to you, didn't I? Or.my otherself. After we spent the night together, things got fuzzy and blank and.Buffy, it's really me!"  
Buffy was in the agony of confusion. All that she wanted was to crawl over to him and put her head in his lap, and have him hold her until she was healed enough to hold him too. But his eyes held something that she didn't understand, something that wasn't present in Angel or Angelus. And she couldn't figure it out.  
"Buffy, why are you doing this to me?" he pleaded softly. "You know I can't touch you in the sun."  
  
Angelus kept fought to keep himself from smiling. Would the slayer take the bait? He knew that it was hard for her to resist, but he also knew that he wasn't completely as Angel had been, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep up the act.  
  
Resolutely, Buffy's heart won out, and she began to crawl out of the sunlight, and into the darkness that held danger. 


	6. shadows

Buffy was crawling, scraping her wounded side on the floor, keeping her eyes on Angel's face. He held out his hand in the closest shadow he could find, and she grasped it, using his hand to pull herself out of the sunlight and into the shadows with him. Breathing hard, she curled into a ball and let Angel carry her the rest of the way, into a separate room of the warehouse that she had never seen before.  
"Buffy, it's okay now, it's all gonna be ok. As soon as I can, I'll go get Giles." She nodded slowly and whispered, "I missed you so much." He didn't say anything, but held her tighter, and sat down with her against a wall of the room, which was dimly lit and very cold. Wrapping her in a dingy blanket, Angel cradled her in his arms, and for a moment, Buffy felt safe. She wrapped her hands around his face and cried. He started to cry too, and buried his face in her hair, nuzzling her neck. With a bright light, Buffy was back to 2 nights before, when he had nuzzled her just the same way, and then taken her against her will, when he had been Angelus. With a yell, she shoved him away.  
  
Angelus knew that the gig was up. She had remembered something, and that had given him away. "Dammit slayer, we were just getting to the fun part." He hissed. "I don't like your idea of fun." She snarled. "Get away from me." Running over to her, he wrapped his hands around her neck and shoved her up against the wall. "No. You see, I have a thing with slayers. I like to kill them. You don't mind, do you, because you're kind of the key character in this little game." Tossing her easily to the side, he marveled at her lithe form as it sank to the floor, her hand on her side, gasping with pain. "Oh, yeah, that little knife wound. I would've though you were too strong for that to hurt you this long. In all fairness though, the knife was about the size of a machete." He chuckled. "I just can't get over my great taste in weapons." She turned her head up to face him, fixing him with a look filled with such hatred that he felt a moment of uncertainty. But then it was gone, and he watched her get up with an amused interest. When she finally stood up unsteadily, he smiled and clapped his hands. "Bravo." He said loudly. "Good show." Then his expression changed to something darker. "It'll be more fun for me if you're standing anyway." 


	7. broken

Buffy stood unsteadily, her posture defiant. Her eyes blazed with a fire unlike any she had ever felt before, and she knew that it was a mixture of love and hate. The wound in her side became merely a memory, and the tension in her muscles made her body ripple with power. As Angelus stood in front of her, watching the change with interest, she vowed that she would kill him if she could. Her heart couldn't take anymore pain like this. If it didn't stop soon, she wouldn't have the strength to keep on living.  
  
Willow felt a ripple go through her body. For a brief instant, she saw what Buffy saw, and felt what Buffy felt. Her channeling spell had obviously gone too far. All she'd tried to do was find Buffy's location, because none of them had seen her for 2 days after her last patrol. But since Angelus was involved, they had a good idea of where she was.  
"Giles!" She yelled. "Get the orb quick! And bring the sell book! We have to cure Angel now!"  
  
Buffy looked grimly at her boyfriend's murderer.  
"Are we really going to do this?" she asked softly, unable to keep the pain out of her voice.  
"Of course lover! I wouldn't miss this date for the world." His voice was harsh and cold. And with it, Buffy buried all thoughts of saving him. Her Angel was gone, and she could not bring him back.  
With a grim determination, she ran at the vampire and feinted a right hook at his head. He dodged her easily, smacking her butt as she fell to the side.  
"I knew this would be fun." He said loudly.  
Buffy ran at him again, her fists flailing, but he dodged her again, this time capturing her lips in a quick kiss before he flung her into a wall.  
"Not up to this, lover?" He drawled.  
Buffy ducked his punch aimed at her face and swept her legs under him, knocking him to the floor. His head cracked against the concrete of the warehouse, and he brought his leg up to knock her onto her stomach.  
"You'll pay for that one, bitch." He growled.  
Jumping onto her back, he brought his hand up under her head, and snapped her neck.  
  
Willow felt a tug as the spell was completed and Angel's soul was returned to him. Smiling to herself, she went back to the channeling spell she had been using to pinpoint Buff's location. With a shock, she felt the crack of bone, heard tears of anguish, and knew that something was terribly wrong.  
  
Angel cradled Buff's lifeless body in his arms, crying over her in agony. He had killed her. The one thing he loved in all the world. And she had hated him. Her eyes were still open, although their blue depths were empty and lifeless, like the dark of a deep pond. He bent his head over her and kissed her softly, letting his tears fall into her face, watching her intently, hoping that she would wake up and look at him. But she didn't.  
Instead, a bright light began to fill the room. He saw Buffy, as she had been during their night together, her eyes wide and unsure, but full of love. And then, he felt her small hand take his. Angel looked up his eyes still brimming with tears, and saw Buffy standing before him. Behind her were all of the past slayers, all the girls who had fought and died to save the world. And suddenly, Angel stopped crying. There was a way that he and Buffy could be together now.  
Determined, he laid Buffy's body gently on the cold warehouse floor, and walked outside into the sunlight. Buffy's spirit followed him, her hand still in his, smiling as he burst into ashes and called out her name. His ring clattered down and landed in the grass.  
  
Willow ran with all of the strength within her to the old warehouse that Spike and Drusilla had taken residence in. As she skidded to a halt inside the door, she saw her best friend's body laid down in front of the fireplace. Crying out, she knelt beside her and cradled her broken head. Remembering Angel and her spell, Willow ran through the mansion, blurred by tears. "Angel!" she called. "Angel!" No response came, and she walked slowly outside. As she bent to sit in the grass, her hand pressed on something cold and hard. It was Angels' ring, identical to the one he had given Buffy. Suddenly understanding, Willow picked up the ring and ran back inside to Buffy's body. Sliding the ring onto her best friend's finger, Willow said a prayer to the goddess, and stopped crying. They were together now. And some day, Willow, Giles, and Xander would join them. Someday. 


End file.
